Saiyuki Deadrock
by nalanala
Summary: The Saiyuki party has gone west. Way west. Newly edited
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I don't own Saiyuki.

Saiyuki Deadrock 

The stage rolled into Deadrock on time.

It was enough to make the Sheriff open his eyes and watch through slitted lids as the ancient vehicle groaned to a stop in front of the town's only claim to a hotel, bar, restaurant and brothel.

The usual loiterers seemed to materialize from nowhere, and a press of usual faces at the general store window told the sheriff that although the stage had arrived at an unexpected hour, it hadn't arrived unnoticed. After all, the twice weekly arrival of the stage on its journey out and back provided at least the hope of some entertainment: letters, packages, or best of all, a new face.

Purple eyes shifted to watch as the guard riding shotgun leaped down to open the stagecoach door, another unexpected and therefore suspect event. At the same moment the door of the bank opened and the bank's president strolled out, his wife leaning on his arm. He was looking deceptively benign and bovine, as usual. She, on the other hand, had on more finery than was her custom, displaying - if not enhancing - her charms.

Ch. That explained it. The new schoolmarm was on the coach. She would be a fresh addition to what passed for the town's social life. And since the bank had helped fund the building of the new school, the bank president had taken an unusual interest in the issue of education.

_Ignorant sot,_ thought the Sheriff, more in observation than condemnation. One corner of his thin mouth curled slightly. The new schoolmarm was pretty, if the guard's uncharacteristic attempt at manners was any indication. That meant that Mrs. Oxley, the bank president's second, trophy wife, would be displeased.

The door to the saloon opened and Sha Gojyo strolled out. Figured, thought the Marshall contemptuously. If it involved drinking, gambling, or a woman, it involved Sha. Those errant strands of red hair that he kept so carefully covered with his black Stetson might as well have been antennae, fine-tuned for women and trouble.

The stage door opened. The guard stepped back and dipped his head in a slight, respectful bow.

A slender young man stepped out. Even from where he sat, Sheriff Sanzo could see the flash of green eyes behind prim wire-rimmed glasses. He was impeccably dressed and impossibly cool looking in spite of the heat of the noonday sun. He had a vague, almost dreamy smile pinned to his lips, a smile at odds with that flash of green.

Sanzo sensed rather than saw Sha straighten. Sha wasn't stupid, not that Sanzo would ever admit it. Sanzo knew that Sha had sensed it too, that potentially dangerous contradiction that had just emerged from the stage coach in the form of a seemingly mild-mannered young man.

A fellow gambler? It seemed unlikely, but then when you got this far west, the unlikely was commonplace. A fugitive from justice? More likely, given that aura…but physically he didn't fit the profile. Still…

"Ah, welcome, welcome!" Guy Oxley surged forward, hand outstretched. He grasped the young man's hand and pumped it with practiced goodwill, laying claim to the visitor.

Behind them, a suitcase joined the stack of boxes that the guard had stacked carefully on the plank sidewalk. Heavy boxes, too, by the way the guard had struggled with them. If the sheriff had been a man given to fanciful thoughts, he might have speculated that stolen bullion gave the boxes their unusual heft. But he merely registered the fact of the their weight, filing it away for further use if needed.

Now the guard was bowing again, and the young man slipped his hand free from Oxley's grasp to turn and speak, leaning forward slightly in a bow as well. The guard beamed and Oxley looked puzzled. His own courtesy was reserved for those he considered his equals or, should he ever meet anyone of that august standing, his betters.

Then Mrs. Oxley had locked one of her hands around the young man's wrist and was drawing him away. The guard slammed the stage door shut and returned to his perch.

Sanzo allowed himself what might have been a small smile before closing his eyes again. The new schoolmarm had arrived. And the new schoolmarm was indeed quite stunning.

The new schoolmarm was a man.

Top of Form

Bottom of Form


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

_So this is Deadrock_, thought Cho Hakkai. _It lives up to its name._

He smiled. Mrs. Oxley smiled back from her command post at the foot of the long, elaborately decorated and over-burdened table – although it was not nearly as overburdened as the engineering marvel concealed in her gown for the purposes of elevation and display. Seated on her right, Hakkai had been given ample opportunity to admire the structural ingenuity of underpinnings that managed to reveal so much without being revealed themselves.

A patented invention? And if so, under what name? He looked up into that smile again and felt a faint flush stain his cheeks as he realized that she thought his admiration was for the results, rather than for the brace work itself.

"Mr. Cho," she purred.

"Yes, Mrs. Oxley," Halkkai said politely.

She gave him the barest hint of a pout, then continued, "You have such a sweet smile. I declare, a girl could just eat you up and call you dessert."

Hakkai felt the polite smile freeze on his face. His stomach lurched and he set his wineglass down with suddenly nerveless fingers.

"Oh, dear. Did I embarrass you? I didn't mean to, I promise." She sounded delighted.

"No, no," Hakkai said, gathering his wits, shaking off the visions that he had only recently begun to manage just managed to keep confined to his sleeping hours—if you could call it sleep. "It's just that when you think about it, the image itself is a rather gruesome one, is it not?"

A servant appeared from the shadows to fill his wine glass. He seized it and drank half of it down. Lowering it, he found himself being even more closely scrutinized by Mrs. Oxley, if possible. She titled her head, her tongue teasing one corner of her full mouth.

"Do you think so?" she purred. "It depends on the context, wouldn't you say?"

The small silence that had fallen over their nearest dining companions began to spread and Oxley himself now peered down the table. Hakkai forced a smile back to his face. "Perhaps," he conceded. "Context is important; it is a concept I endeavor to instill in my students, not always successfully, I'm afraid." He finished his wine and let the servant refill it, pretending not to notice the others watching with raised brows.

Oxley caught the last of the sentence and boomed, "Instill a little of the paddle in them, professor, that's the ticket."

"I'm not a…" Hakkai began.

He was cut off by the halting, whispering voice of Doctor Lapini. "Spare the rod and spoil the child, a doctor a day keeps the doctor away, hmmm? Yet no one has ever quantified the results of any such experiment."

Pout back in place, Mrs. Oxley flicked her finger at the servant to clear.

"An interesting experiment conceptually, but surely impossible to implement," Hakkai said. "You can't experiment with sentient beings in such a manner."

Pursing thin lips, Dr. Lapini leaned forward. His glasses glinted in the candlelight, but his eyes stayed flat as stones. "Could you not argue that all of life is just such an experiment, Professor?"

"No, no, I'm no professor," Hakkai said, raising his hand and laughing softly. He was himself again, swimming easily in the shallows of human company. "But are you an evolutionist, Doctor? You surprise me."

"None of those radical notions in _this_ town," said Oxley.

Mrs. Oxley stood abruptly. "Well, I'll leave you gentlemen to your port, and _so_ interesting conversation." This was the signal for the ladies to retire. The ladies consisted of the hostess, her teenage daughter Lirin, and Miss Hwan - Lirin's governess, or perhaps her companion. Hakkai wasn't quite sure.

Miss Hwan rose instantly, in the manner of a marionette responding to the twitch of the strings. Lirin didn't move.

"Lirin," said Mrs. Oxley.

"I want to stay," said Lirin. "I don't need to retire, and they're talking about interesting stuff! Not like …"

"Lirin!" Mrs. Oxley attempted outraged virtue, although whether at Lirin's blunt repudiation of the need to use the facilities, her implied insult to the ladies' conversation, or the mere fact of her rebellion, Hakkai couldn't be certain.

Oxley intervened. "Oh, let her stay. I promise our talk will be no more than interesting."

Hakkai could see Mrs. Oxley wavering. She yielded at last, looking at Hakkai from beneath long, darkened eyelashes. "Well, since the schoolmaster is here. I'll trust you to see that Lirin is exposed to no improper talk, Mr. Cho."

From Professor back to Mister, Hakkai noted, a reminder that he was, more or less, an employee. "Ah," he said pleasantly, making no commitments.

Unfazed by the insult to his parenting skills, Mr. Oxley said, "Now, now, we'll be along."

Thus dismissed, Mrs. Oxley could do no more. Chin high, she turned and led the way from the room,

Lirin looked from one man to the other, eyes bright with expectation. She wasn't what Hakkai would call pretty, but life radiated from her, an intelligent vitality that would last far longer than mere prettiness. She would have been, he thought, just the sort of student that kept a classroom in an uproar without even realizing that she was the cause.

He smiled at her and cleared his throat. "So Miss Lirin. We spoke of context earlier, in the discussion of, uh, cannibalism. Are you for it, or against it?"

Her eyes went wide.

"Cho!" sputtered Oxley.

Lirin gave a peal of laughter. "Against it, Mr. Cho. In all contexts!"

"Very proper," said Hakkai, his eyes twinkling back at her.

Doctor Lapini said, "Not a subject for laughter, is it? Not in this part of the world especially."

Lirin's laughter ceased abruptly and she flushed a little. "I never meant…I didn't…"

"Of course not. You're young." The way the doctor said it made it sound as if being young was a sinful, and possibly salacious, choice on Lirin's part. She flushed a little more.

"Forgive me," Hakkai said. "Such a topic is hardly suitable at a dinner table. Ever."

Oxley finished selecting a cigar and motioned the servant toward Hakkai. "It's not that. You're new here, so you couldn't know. The youkai. They're the problem."

"Indeed?" said Hakkai. "Being from the city, I'm not very familiar with youkai. But I had been lead to understand that relations were peaceful."

Oxley was shaking his head and the Doctor said, "Not here. They've taken to raiding and killing, stealing livestock and torching crops…and…worse." He glanced at Lirin.

"I don't believe it," Lirin said. "Why would youkai want to eat people? Ick."

"Because they're crazy," said Doctor Lapini. "It's genetic. In their nature."

"Truly? That would be the first I've heard of it," Hakkia said. The lie slipped easily past his lips.

"You have a gun, Cho?"

Hakkai shook his head and Oxley said, "Well get one. Keep it with you."

"But surely that is unnecessary in town," Hakkai protested.

"Don't go unarmed," Oxley said. "Better safe than sorry."

"But it doesn't make sense. They _have _always lived peacefully with us. When this territory first opened up, they welcomed us, shared food with the settlers that first winter…"

"It's complicated, Miss Lirin," Doctor Lapini said.

"Is it something about their land?" Hakkai inquired.

Oxley swung around with a scowl, a chunk of ash falling unheeded from the tip of the cigar to roll across the Aubusson. "What about the land? What do you mean?"

Hakkai smiled his most disarming smile. "Well, perhaps something the water, or the soil, is infecting them? Surely that ought to be explored."

"It would infect us, too." Oxley stabbed out his cigar. "No, it is merely the manifestation of their true natures. We won't be safe until everyone of them has been…"

Dr. Lapini said smoothly, "A solution will be reached in due time."

"Solution?" asked Hakkai.

"You mean kill them." Lirin stood up, her fists clenched. "Like animals. Like they're not even human."

"They're not," said Doctor Lapini.

"Sentient beings," murmured Hakkai.

They all looked at Hakkai.

Then, still scowling, Oxley rose ponderously to his feet, effectively cutting off the discussion. "Enough of this. Time to join the ladies. Lirin, my dear, may your father offer you his arm?"

Recognizing this as a command, rather than a request, Lirin rose from her seat and attatched herself to her father's arm. The party swept out of the room; Oxley as pompous as ever, Lirin sulking as much as she dared, Doctor Lapini with a self-satisfied smile, as if he knew something terribly amusing that the rest of them didn't. And trailing quietly behind, Hakkai watched them all.

_So _this_ is the _real _Deadrock_, he thought.

And smiled.


	3. Chapter 3

4

Happiness was a warm girl. No - a hot one.

Sha Gojyo was happy. He was drunk. One pocket was full of winnings, and no, it wasn't a pickle in his other pocket. He was happy to see Leli, happy to feel her wrapped around him. She'd have her hands in both pockets before the night was over, but no matter. They'd both get what they wanted.

He loved women. _Loved_ them. All of them.

Goyjo kissed Leli hard, and she kissed him back; all soft lips and soft breast and soft breath, pressed together, swaying in the warm light that spilled through the saloon doors.

Now she was giggling. "You keep that up, we'll never make it back to your place," she warned. She was wiggling while she was giggling, and it wasn't helping. Or it was, depending on your point of view.

Then someone cleared his throat and Gojyo swung around, pushing Leli behind him and producing his derringer in one fluid motion that had nothing to do with being drunk or wantonly distracted.

"Goodness," a voice said and the town's newest arrival stepped into the light. "You are quite efficient with that."

Gojyo snorted, making the gun vanish as if dematerialized. Leli, peaking around Gojyo, said, "Oh, Gojyo, you big bully. It's just the new schoolmaster."

She wiggled out from behind Gojyo and said, "Hey there. I'm Leli."

"How do you do, Miss Leli?" Hakkai bowed.

Gojyo slid his arm around Leli's waist and pulled her back against him. "You're out late," he said. "Especially for a teacher."

"Indeed I am," Hakkai said. "For a school teacher."

The two men eyed each other. Sha Gojyo saw a slender bespectled man, neatly dressed and the very template of the absent-minded professor. Returning the scrutiny, Cho Hakkai added details to his first impression of the tall, dark-clad figure, long legged and lean and a little disheveled, that he'd noticed among the onlookers when he disembarked the stage that day.

Hakkai smiled. "I don't believe we've been introduced. I'm…"

"Cho Hakkai. Hell, everybody knows who you are, sensei. I'm Sha Gojyo." Hakkai found his hand enveloped in calloused warmth. The man dressed like a slightly louche dandy and had the sideways smile of a choir boy, but his hands told a different story. Not what he appeared to be, then. But was he more – or less?

"I'm pleased to meet you both," Hakkai said.

Leli gave a little hoot of laughter. "It's nice of you to say so, but you better not stay around us too long. It could ruin your reputation." She half-turned to rub her cheek against the sleeve of Goyjo's black coat.

"How so?" Hakkai said, although he suspected he knew the answer. She was pretty, his mind registered vaguely, with a sweet smile and sharp eyes and in fact, he suspected, exactly what she appeared to be.

"Let's just say we're associates of the saloon," Gojyo said.

"Associates! I like that!" Leli laughed and made the little cat-like movement against Goyjo again.

"Whether or not you are associates of the saloon, whatever that might mean, would not be a determining factor in my choice of friends," said Hakkai.

Leli made her eyes wide to show she was impressed and then giggled.

Gojyo drawled, "Nice words. For a school teacher." He smiled that smile down at Hakkai and Hakkai met eyes that seemed, startlingly, to be red even in the shadow of the saloon. But before he could be certain the eyes shifted. "Well, you ever need a game of cards, ask for Sha Gojyo."

Leli giggled some more. "Don't do it," she advised. "Gojyo doesn't lose. Do you, Gojyo darling?"

"Gods, Leli, you trying to jinx me?" Gojyo pulled Leli closer and began to guide her away, remembering to toss, "Welcome to Deadrock, sensei," over his shoulder before the sound of his high-heeled boots and her soft giggles were swallowed up by the darkness.

Hakka slipped back into the shadows and up the outside stairs to the room he was renting, deciding two things as he went: He'd have to find a quieter, more private living arrangement, and soon; and not everybody in Deadrock was what they appeared to be, not the least of them one Sha Gojyo..

Sanzo looked up from his newspaper and waited.

"Good morning, Sheriff," Hakkai said.

"Hnn," said Sanzo. He reached for his cigarettes, tapped one out, and lit it. He closed his eyes as he inhaled, opening them as he exhaled to fix his gaze on the man in front of him.

"I am hoping you can be of assistance to me," Hakkai continued. "My pupils inform me that a rancher by the name of Wayne has a son who should be in school. I am correct in my understanding that this town requires the children of its citizens to attend classes until sixth grade."

"Your point," said Sanzo said. He let his eyelids droop, waiting for the man to stumble out an apology, a possibly a protest at his rudeness.

Schoolmaster Cho did none of these things. "Very well. I am going to discuss the matter with Mr. Wayne. Since I understand he can be a bit short-tempered, I thought you might like to come along to enforce the law.

"Scared to go by yourself?" Sanzo smirked.

Green eyes glinted behind wire rimmed glasses. "Not at all. I am merely extending the courtesy of informing you of a situation that could require your intervention, in order to prevent violent escalation. Pardon me for intruding upon your valuable time."

He concluded with with a slight bow and turned away.

"Chh." Said Sanzo standing up to retrieve his hat and gun. "I didn't say I wouldn't come with you.."

"Ah. My apologies for the misunderstanding," the schoolmaster murmured. Then he smiled.

Beatifically.

Sanzo had heard that the new schoolmaster was a friendly man, always ready with a smile and an offer of help, patient and perhaps a little naïve if his habit of treating everyone as an equal was any indication. In the few weeks he'd been in town, Cho had been the souce of equal parts praise and speculation, from the dry grocer to the ladies of the evening, to whom he routinely bowed and tipped his hat exactly as he did with the virtuous ladies whose husbands kept the saloon in business.

There were idiots as far as the eye could see, and the biggest idiots were those who believed in the sort of smile in which the schoolteacher traded.

The sheriff followed the man out the door trying to remember the last time he'd seen Wayne Jien and wondering if he was going to have to shoot the man just to make sure his brat went to school.

Or maybe, just maybe, he'd shoot the schoolmaster first. That would be the smart thing to do, before the man could really start causing trouble.


End file.
